When Good Will Hunting appeared on BBC iPlayer last week, I jumped at the chance to watch, knowing that it was somewhere in the IMDB 250 (#198). Truthfully, I wasn’t entirely certain what to expect.

Good Will Hunting could be described as a coming of age tale, despite its protagonist being in his 20s. Will Hunting is a mathematical prodigy working as a mere janitor in M.I.T. Through a scenario involving Will anonymously answering two groundbreaking equations on the chalkboard outside the lecture theatre, his mathematical talents are noticed by the University’s professor of Mathematics, who helps him out of a tight scenario with the law under the condition that he sees a therapist.

What follows is a heartwarming story which sees Will discover that there’s far more to life than boozing, beating up old-time rivals and avoiding responsibility. The dialogue is super snappy and realistic, which is testament to not only the quality of the script but also the actors; don’t you just love it when the dialogue of a film feels so real? Some stellar performances here.

My favourite character by far was Robin Williams’ Sean McGuire, Will’s offbeat therapist, as he provided some of my favourite dialogue in the film. Possibly my favourite moment of the entire film was when Sean speaks about what he remembers about his late wife:

“The little idiosyncrasies that only I know about: that’s what made her my wife. Oh she had the goods on me too, she knew all my little peccadilloes. People call these things imperfections, but they’re not. Ah, that’s the good stuff.”

Quality, quality film.